Like it says on the front page, I won summat this month.
The maths, of course, is a lie. There’s been a ton of submissions this year, and far more failures than successes. I’ve learnt so much, yet made minimal progress, if you decide to count acceptance as the benchmark. The reality, of course, is that there’s been so much growth and renaissance regardless. You never stop learning. Success doesn’t allow you, in this version of reality, to sit back and assume suddenly you’re good. Nope, this is a first step. Small, tentative but undoubtedly with determination, and most importantly forward.
I’m already looking forward, working on stuff for submission over Christmas. The stuff in my Big Book of Poetry that has failed will be looked at again, and if anything in there remains worthwhile of a retool, it will happen. This year’s lessons are well-learnt: don’t keep pinning your hope on the same thing, diversify, learn from mistakes, keep looking for a focus, don’t get distracted. The most important point of all however is to BE MYSELF, and that means that this is a victory and is celebrated as such.
No other bugger’s gonna promote me, so time to get on with it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Brmj7w4n2mu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I’m a published poet now. That’s bloody brilliant, that is.
The Internet of Words 